It Started Out With A Cat
by Better-Angels
Summary: For Finn, Rey and Poe, it's their first time out in the real world. Stressful classes, confusing roommates, scary professors, wild parties, crazy cats: just your average day in college. College AU of TFA featuring all your faves. Be prepared for fluff and hopefully some laughs as well as some (I hope) cute moments. Please review and tell me your thoughts on this cheesy little thing
1. The crazy cat

Chapter 1

He was nervous. Of course he was. It was his first day of college, it was fine to be nervous. It was normal. Everyone was nervous. Nobody looked as nervous as he felt though, walking up the stairs and along the corridor. He hauled a suitcase behind him with a box of stuff under his arm and a key in his hand.

When he reached his room, he stood there at the door for a second, staring at the four numbers on the wooden door in front of him. 2187.

He took a deep breath in and caught the scent of cologne and beer. That was a slight comfort for him, it was similar to the old rooms back at the academy. Boy, was he glad to finally get out of there. Training, day in, day out, no real friends, awful teachers...

But this was going to be different. College would be better. He could finally express himself and live the life he'd always dreamed of.

Before he could get the key into the door, it swung open and something came charging out, knocking his legs out from under him and he fell to the ground.

"BB!" A voice came from above him. "Dammit, get back here! Oh hey, sorry about that!"

He looked up and saw someone standing over him, holding out a hand with a sheepish grin on his face. He took his hand and the other boy pulled him up to his feet.

"Oh jeez, your stuff. I'm so sorry about this, BB-8... Really got a mind of its own that animal."  
He stood awkwardly by the door while the boy picked up all of his scattered CDs and books.

Poe picked up a CD with a smile of recognition, "Hey, you have Bowie, nice one."  
This jolted him out of his daze.

"Oh, yeah! Great album!"

Then they were inside the room with all possessions neatly arranged on the spare bed.

"Nice to meet you, by the way. My name's Poe. Poe Dameron." He said, holding out a hand which was hesitantly shaken.  
"I'm um... F... F..." He stuttered.

"Finn?" Poe suggested.

"Well, not exactly, but-"

"I'm gonna call you Finn."  
Finn found himself smiling. Something about Poe just seemed to draw him to him and feel instantly at ease. "Nice to meet you."

"You too, buddy. Now how about we go look for my cat, huh?"  
"Alright."

They ran around from room to room, yelling after the cat. Then Finn spotted him through a window, jumping around in the quad, chasing his own tail.

"There he is!"

Poe also found his pet and tore down the stairs. When Finn caught up with him, he was holding the white and ginger cat in his arms.

"Thanks so much for helping me find the little guy." Poe beamed.  
"No problem."

"You wanna pet him?"

Finn stretched out a hand nervously towards the cat and it nuzzled against his hand and purred.  
"Hey, looks like he likes you."  
"I guess so."

They smiled at each other for a moment until suddenly someone bumped into Poe hard as they ran past and yelled "fag".

Finn saw the rage and hurt in his face well up as he handed BB-8 over to him.  
"I'll see you later, Finn. I gotta take care of something. Just keep BB in the room if you can. Thanks."

Then he ran off after the person who'd yelled at him, who'd joined a group of boys, all broad-shouldered and wearing varsity jackets. Finn watched as they started to argue and then some ran away, pursued by Poe.

Looking on, perplexed, Finn then made his way obediently back up to the room.

On his way up the dorm building steps, BB-8 wriggled in his arms and he accidentally stepped on something. He looked down to see it was the black hem of a coat worn by a scowling figure sitting on the ground with a guitar. He was wearing all black, with a long black coat and dark hair to his shoulders.

"Oh, sorry!" Finn smiled apologetically at the boy.

He didn't respond, only glared.

Finn secured his hold on Poe's cat and headed back into the dorm building.

Finn placed BB-8 down on the floor and shut the door behind him. After unpacking a few clothes and books, everything he had, he flopped down onto his bed.

Why had that horrible word been yelled at Poe? People back at the academy had said about boys who liked other boys. Did Poe like boys? Did Poe like him? Nobody had ever liked him before, nobody as nice as Poe...

Finn felt his face get hot. Then he heard an excited squeak from BB-8 and a second later Poe came bursting through the door. He was panting and sweating and there was blood on his face.

Finn jumped to his feet. BB-8 pushed the door shut with his nose and nuzzled against Poe's legs.

"Are you alright man?" Finn asked.  
"My head, I-"  
"Come here, sit down."

Poe sat down on his bed. Finn ran quickly to the bathroom and came back with a wash cloth, accidentally shutting BB-8 into the bathroom on his way. He sat down beside Poe and tentatively pushed back his dark hair and began to dab at the bleeding on his head.

Poe winced and his hands clenched into fists.

"Do you wanna tell me what happened?" Finn said gently.  
"I got in a fight. With some jerks from my high school. Unfortunately they all came to the same college and made more jerk friends." He sighed. "And just because I secretly dated one of them for a year, they think it gives them the right to do whatever they want."

"You dated one of those guys?" Finn raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Oh, don't look at me like that. It was three years ago, I was just figuring things out!"  
Finn smiled sympathetically, "Still, they shouldn't call you names though."

"I know. They're just jerks. Screw 'em, I don't care what they think of me."  
Finn put the towel down on his lap. "You should be alright now."

"Thanks, man."  
"Welcome."

Poe was so close he could feel his warm breath on his face, and he started to lean closer, his eyes moving over Finn's face, his lips parted. Then a loud and very indignant squeal came from inside the bathroom.

Poe stood up.

"BB-8?"

Another squeak.

He opened the door and the cat came running out, very indignant about being shut in the bathroom even though he had gone in there himself in the first place.

"I should have a shower." Poe said, stretching.  
"O-okay." Finn stammered, standing up too.

A strangely knowing smile appeared on Poe's face. "I'll be out in a minute."

Finn almost collapsed on the floor the second the bathroom door closed.

He had just finished doing some deep breathing, BB-8 sitting beside him looking confused, when the bathroom door opened again.

Poe strode out, rubbing his hair with a towel, another one wrapped around his waist. When he smiled at Finn he was staring straight ahead, BB-8 on his lap, batting at one of the toggles on his hoodie with his paw.

Poe stretched and mentioned casually "Hey, I heard the dorms are gonna be getting pizza for everybody if you wanna go down soon and check that out."  
"Sure." Finn said shortly.  
"I'll just get dressed." He reached down for a pair of jeans.  
"Right."

Finn grabbed the towel he'd used to tend to Poe and disappeared into the bathroom with it. He sat down on the lid of the toilet and stared at the ceiling.

 _Calm down, calm down, calm down._  
 _Why couldn't he have gotten dressed in the bathroom? Why?!_

There was a knock on the door.  
"Finn," He could hear the smile in Poe's voice. "You can come out now." 


	2. The pretty girl

Chapter 2

After a couple of days, classes started up for the new term.

Finn found out that Poe was an English major and admired the stacks of books he kept bringing back from the library. Finn was undeclared so he decided to go to a few different classes to see what he liked.

One of his first classes was Advanced Mathematics. When he arrived the professor nodded at him and everything seemed to be going smoothly but then with a jolt he recognised the glaring boy from the other day. He was sitting with earphones in, writing intensely in his notebook even though the class hadn't even started yet.

Once the class did actually begin, the teacher didn't hesitate. She jumped straight in at a breakneck speed. Finn could barely keep up and couldn't help but notice that the dark haired boy's hand kept shooting up to answer or to question something the professor said.

About half an hour through the hour long class, the door creaked open at the back of the hall. A girl walked in, and said something to the teacher in an apologetic voice.

As she walked down the steps to a spare seat in the lecture hall, Finn stared at her in amazement.

"Wow, she's pretty."

Laughter broke out in the hall.

Wait, had he said that out loud?! Oh no. Oh god, no!

The girl sat down quickly in embarrassment as Finn grabbed his bag and ran from the room, the other students' laughter ringing in his ears.

Poe was very sympathetic when he told him about it that night and he suggested that they go out to a party to try and take his mind off of it.

"I haven't been to many parties before." Finn said nervously.  
He'd been to none, in fact, but he didn't want to sound like a loser.  
"It'll be fine!" Poe clapped him on the back. "Don't worry about it, man. We can just have a few drinks and relax."

Poe seemed perfectly relaxed at the party, giving little half-salutes to people and getting him and Poe drinks. Finn drank his beer quickly and hoped nobody could tell he was sweating.

"Oh no."  
"What is it?"  
"That's her."  
"The pretty one?" Poe asked.  
Finn nodded, clutching his beer in suddenly trembling hands.  
"Go talk to her."  
"What?! No way!" He said, horrified, "she already thinks I'm a complete idiot."

"Look, she's smiling at you."

Finn looked up in amazement then turned back around, disgruntled.

"No she's not! She wasn't even-"

"Go on! Go talk to her!" Poe pushed him in the direction of the girl and before he had a chance to protest or run away he was right in front of her.

"Have you met Finn?" Poe asked, then rushed off to greet a cute hipster that had just walked in.

"Hi," said Finn, trying not to let the nerves show in his voice.  
"Hi Finn," she smiled, taking a sip from her bottle of coke. "Nice to meet you."  
"Nice t-to meet you too." He took a quick swig from his bottle.  
"I'm Rey."  
"That's a nice name."  
"Thanks."

They made polite small talk for half an hour or so. Rey was an Engineering major and she complained about the fact that the school was assigning her a tutor to give her extra help with Maths because her old school hadn't covered it very well.

"Wow that sucks."

"I know! And it's not even my fault, it was try old school that didn't teach it properly!"  
Finn swallowed nervously. "Um... Listen, Rey, I know we just met and all but do you maybe wanna... wanna go out some-"

She looked down at her drink, embarrassed. "Um, Finn, you seem nice and all but I'm not really looking for any kind of relationship right now. Sorry."  
"Oh... okay."  
"It'd be fun to be friends, though."  
"Sure."  
"See you, then." She touched his hand gently and disappeared.

Finn turned and walked back towards where Poe had last been seen, in a daze. Someone came past with a tray and stopped him.

"Hey, man, you want something?"  
"Huh?"  
"Purple Nurples." The guy grinned.  
"Okay."

Poe wandered into the back room a hour later, the hipster's phone number tucked into his back pocket, in search of Finn. He found him, sitting on the floor, surrounded by cushions. A couple of people were sitting about talking, some smoking or drinking.

"Finn. Hey, Finn!" Poe shook him gently.  
"Poe?"  
"You alright, man?" He sat down beside him.

His voice was so pathetic, "No."

"What happened?" He asked softly.  
"She rejected me. I asked her out and she flat out said no way."

Poe winced. "Jeez, that's rough."  
"So this guy gave me these nice drinks and then I came in here and made some new friends."

He smiled. "That's great, Finn, but I think we should be getting back to the dorm. It's pretty late."  
Finn nodded in agreement.

"BB-8 must be wondering where we are." Poe grinned and stood up.  
"He's so cute." He said, almost to himself, standing up too and swaying dangerously forwards.

Poe grabbed Finn quickly and held him up. "Me and him got a lot in common, right?" He chuckled.  
"Yeah, totally." He said, nodding sincerely.  
He was a little taken aback, and when Finn stumbled over the front door he held him up, a little closer than before.

When they reached their room, BB-8 was lying on Finn's bed, curled up in a circle, fast asleep. He didn't even wake up when Finn crashed down beside him.  
Poe made sure Finn was lying on his front before going over to his own bed and sitting down.

He took the cute hipster guy's number out of his pocket and looked at the scrap of paper in between his thumb and forefinger.

With a sigh, he crumpled it into a little ball and tossed it into the trash.

About a week later, Rey went for her first session with her new Maths tutor. She'd been instructed to meet him in the library, and after some searching she found the place.

It was a gorgeous building, all high ceilings, massive windows letting in plenty of natural light, and towering shelves of books covering topics from asexuality to zoology and beyond.

He saw her walking uncertainly around, the sunlight pouring in and shining on her hair, tied back in strange three buns at the back of her head.

She looked up and saw him sitting there at the desk, books around him, a seat beside him pulled out and saw the recognition flash on her face.

"Hello." She said quietly as she sat down.  
"Hi."  
"Are you Kyle?"  
"Kylo Ren." He sounded a little exasperated, as if this happened a lot. "Here's the syllabus."

As they worked, Rey kept catching him staring at her obviously. When he was caught, he would cough loudly and look at his phone awkwardly.

Suddenly his phone rang: "When I was a young boy, my father took me into the city to see a marching band..."  
He swore quietly, excused himself and leapt from his chair and walked away to answer it.

"Hux, why the hell are you calling me? I told you I was busy... Yeah... Yeah, I'm with her... What?! No! Shut up! ... I'll see you later, alright?"

He came back over and sat down. After a minute, the old grandfather clock chimed. Rey checked her phone, and stood up.

"Same time next week?" She said.  
"Yeah."  
"Okay, see you then."

Kylo watched her walk away then instantly took out his phone and texted Hux.  
" **Tell everybody. We're having a party.** "  
He replied: " **when?** "  
" **ASAP.** "


End file.
